Sunday, June 06, 2010

Opening Tap: Complex Beers, One Word to Describe Them

Philly Beer Week, now in its third day of ten, kicked off the festivities this past Friday with Opening Tap, a veritable Eden for beer geeks and alcoholics alike. Two hours of drinking the finest craft beer the region has to offer, crowded yet intimate, it's the kind of event that makes you loathe your day job. I get paid to make graphs (which do not get you drunk); these guys get paid to make beer, and the good majority of them are really cool. For example, Mitch from Yards probably should have punched me in the face after I told him he looked like Jake Gyllenhaal. Instead, he shook my hand and poured me another glass of their Polish smoked wheat beer (he told me what it was called, but I forget). It was, in my opinion, easily the best beer of the night. No joke, it tasted like an Islay single malt (a very good thing). If you couldn't make it this year, you should definitely mark your calendar for next year. After the jump, some tasting notes on the weedy, pickly, and cardamom-y, in video form, complete with crappy audio. Buen Provecho.